Saturday, February 23, 2013

Argentina

This
morning I said goodbye to Max who was going to head south for southern Chile. I
left Pucon in the rain feeling cold and miserable. I had intended to take a more
scenic route along some of the lakes in the region; however, with the rain and
the wind and I didn't really feeling like prolonging the misery for a dubious
chance at seeing some scenery. Instead, I jumped back on the Panamerican and
rode south as fast as possible in hopes of escaping the weather.

After
a hundred or so miles of beautiful four lane cruising, I reached Orsorno and the
turn-off for Argentina. As I was riding along, I noticed a whole grip of BMW
R12000's parked outside of a cafe. I stopped to see where they were from and
found a bunch of Polish riders.

We
talked for a few minutes and they filled me in on Argentina. They had started in
Uruguay and had been on the road for about two weeks. They said they were
averaging about 800 km per day! Before we parted they gave me a sticker and we
took a few pictures together.

Shortly after leaving the Poles I reached
the Chilean side of the border and found a huge line of people! I was a little
worried as I didn't want to stand in line for hours and then have to ride into
Bariloche in the dark with wet gear. Fortunately it turned out that that line
was for entering Chile. The exit line was significantly shorter.

There
is a large, 20 mile gap between the Chilean immigration buildings and the
Argentinian immigration buildings and it passes through a beautiful national
park which crests on a pass over the Andes.

Halfway
through the park you reach the actual international border.

I
finally reached the Argentinian migracion and was met by another huge line.
Unfortunately, this was the line for people trying to get into Argentina, and I
had to wait with the masses for about an hour. Luckily, by the time I finished,
I still had a few hours of daylight left and I knew I could make it Bariloche
before I froze to death.

There
were still more great views coming down out of the pass and on to Ruta
40.

About
20 miles outside of Bariloche, I came across a long line of slow moving traffic.
Interspersed within the traffic were a few large adventure bikes. I came up on
the rear bike, saw that it had Venezuelan plates, and gave a little wave as I
passed. I eventually passed everyone and was cruising down the final stretch
into Bariloche when one of the bikes caught up to me and started motioning me to
pull over.

I hadn't been able to see his license plate so I was a little
surprised when he started talking to me in English with an American accent. It
turns out that he was from Oregon!

When
I passed him he had seen my license plate and immediately tried to chase me
down. His name was Kieth and he was from Portland. He had shipped his bike to
Ecuador and had been riding around South America for the last few weeks. He had
met up with a Venezuelan rider named Ernesto and they had been riding together
for a while.

I
rode into Barlioche with them and the famed Argentinian wind began to play havoc
with our bikes.

Just
outside of Bariloche we were treated to some amazing views of the nearby
lake.

After
making it into Bariloche we all went to a German resteraunt and had a few
beers.

It
was great to meet up with a fellow Oregonian down here and share some stories.
Bariloche is slammed with tourists right now, so finding a Hostel was a little
difficult. Things are also almost just as expensive here as they are in Chile.
I'm hoping that I can find someone that will give me the black market exchange
rate for dollars.